Petition Tag - elected

Roads in the Vale area are a disgrace, uneven road surfaces, multitude of potholes, poor road surfacing and poor road markings. Shoddy repairs make our roads look like patchwork quilts.

The cost to local residents in extra repairs of their cars that are affected by poor roads is ever increaseing. Recently councillors wasted a huge amount of £'s on Thompson Street in Barry, a road that was already in fairly good condition. The money could have been better spent on roads such as Princess Street which has been in a dreadful state for a long time.

We pay enough local and national taxes to use the roads but get little in return, money needs to be spent to bring our roads up to a acceptable standard. It‘s time our elected officials took action to resolve this issue to the satisfaction of those who elected them, afterall they are there to serve us aren’t they?

Bankruptcy laws have been in place for decades. Why is the United States not letting these businesses go into bankruptcy and joining in as a creditor with cash to keep them operating until they can correct this mess.

We say stop this buy out of the private sector by our taxes and let the system work itself out!

An elected Mayor is not the traditional civic head who chairs council meetings and raises money for charities, the civic Mayor would remain unchanged. An elected Mayor is in effect an elected leader of the council with full executive powers.

I firmly beleive that a directly elected Mayor is more accountable to the electorate and more in touch with their views. They would not have to be a politician but have the ability to understand the political process.
Support my petition today.

The electoral college is one of the many compromises written into the t United States Constitution in 1787. The founding fathers devised the electoral college to elect the president but they did not anticipate the emergence of national political parties or a communications network able to bring presidential candidates before the entire electorate.

Providing that the president be chosen indirectly through the “electoral college” rather than directly by the voters in November was one of the founders’ hedges against “popular passion.” In the beginning, the electors had very real powers to work their will. Now, their sole function is to confirm a decision made by the electorate six weeks earlier.

Under the Constitution, each state is authorized to choose electors for president and vice president, the number always being the same as the combined number of U.S. senators and representatives allotted to that state. With 100 senators and 435 representatives in the United States, plus three electors for the District of Columbia provided by the Twenty-third Amendment, the total electoral college vote is 538.

Makeup and operation of the electoral college itself are tightly defined by the Constitution, but the method of choosing electors is left to the states. In the beginning many states did not provide for popular election of the presidential electors. Today, however, electors are chosen by direct popular vote in every state.

When voters vote for president, they are actually voting for the electors pledged to their presidential candidate. (Electors are named by state party organizations. Serving as an elector is considered an honor, a reward for faithful service.)
With the political parties in control of presidential politics, the function of the electoral college has changed drastically. Rather than having individuals seek to become electors and then vote for whomever they please for president, the parties have turned the process upside down by arranging slates of electors, all pledged to support the candidate nominated by the party.

In the earliest days of the electoral college, quite the opposite was true. Electors cast their votes for individual candidates rather than for party slates, with the majority winner being elected president and the runner-up, vice president. This made for some bizarre situations, as in 1796 when the Federalist John Adams, with 71 votes, became president and the Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, with 68, vice president- roughly equivalent in modern times to an election in which Bush and Dukakis would end up as president and vice president.

In 1800 Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, each won an identical number of electoral votes, forcing the election into the House of Representatives, which resolved it in Jefferson’s favor. It was to avoid any similar occurrence that the Twelfth Amendment was passed in 1804. This amendment required the electors to cast two separate ballots, one for president and the other for vice president. This is the only constitutional change that has been made in the electoral college system, other than to add three electoral votes for the District of Columbia in 1961.

Presidential and vice presidential candidates of a party run as a team. In most of the states, it is the names of the candidates rather than the names of the electors that appear on the ballot; in the other states, both candidates and electors are identified. The victor in each state is determined by counting the votes for each slate of electors; the slate receiving the most votes (the plurality, not necessarily the majority of the votes cast) is declared the winner.

To be elected to the presidency a candidate must receive an absolute majority (270) of the electoral votes cast. If no candidate receives a majority, the House of Representatives picks the winner from the top three, with each state delegation in the House casting only one vote, regardless of its size. Only two U.S. elections have been decided this way (1800 and 1824).

The vice president is elected at the same time by the same indirect winner-take-all method that chooses the president, but the electors vote separately for the two offices. If no vice presidential candidate receives a majority, the Senate picks the winner from the top two, each senator voting as an individual. The Senate has not made the choice since 1836.

Pro/Con -
Another problem cited by critics is the possibility of “faithless electors” who defect from the candidate to whom they are pledged. Most recently, in 1976, a Republican elector in the state of Washington cast his vote for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford, the Republican presidential candidate. Earlier, in 1972, a Republican elector in Virginia deserted Nixon to vote for the Libertarian party candidate. And in 1968, Nixon lost another Virginia elector, who bolted to George Wallace.

The main danger of faithless electors is that the candidate who wins the popular vote could wind up one or two votes short of a majority in the electoral college and could lose the election on a technicality. This prospect becomes more probable when there are third-party or independent candidates who could negotiate with electors before they vote.

Those who argue in favor of retaining the present system state that there is too much uncertainty over whether any other method would be an improvement. They point out that many of the complaints about the electoral college apply just as well to the Senate and, to some extent, to the House. They fear that reform could lead to the dismantling of the federal system.

The Mayor of Doncaster Mr Martin Winter is in his second term as the directly Elected Mayor of Doncaster, under his stewardship Doncaster has progressed and moved forward and is now much more prosperous than just five years ago.

In 2006 there has been excessive opposition to the Mayoral System with petitions being organised calling for his removal.

This is the initial step of a world wide appeal to the United Nations to save the life of Douglas Devananda - the last remaining Tamil opponent of the LTTE banned by the international community for acts of terrorism.

He is the leader of the Tamil political party in the democratic stream which is seen as a formidable rival of the LTTE who claims to "the sole representative of the Tamils". In the past the LTTE (better known as Tamil Tiger terrorists) have made ten attempts on the life of Douglas Devananda, a member of parliament elected by the Tamil people in his electorate in Jaffna. Though he escaped all attempts he is aware of what the IRA told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "You have to be lucky all the time. We have to be lucky only once".

This appeal is to put pressure on the LTTE to halt its eleventh, or twelfth or any other attempts on the life Douglas Devananda. Like any other human being he has a right to life, free from the threats of LTTE suicide bombers or snipers. The international community was shocked when the LTTE sniper shot dead Lakshman Kadirgamar, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, on August 12, 2005. He is the latest in a long list of Tamil leaders eliminated by the LTTE. The history of the LTTE is a record of eliminating all potential rivals to its Supreme, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who is wanted by India for the murder of Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, wanted by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka for 200 years for the killing of non-combatant civilians when the Central Bank building was blown up in the heart of the Colombo and wanted by Interpol.

With the elimination of Lakshman Kadirgamar, a Tamil lawyer from Oxford University, the LTTE silenced one of its leading opponents. The next in line is Douglas Devananda.

It is also necessary to highlight his plight because the LTTE has never admitted to any of the killings. It always draws a smoke screen denying responsibility and blaming it on others. The organizers of this petition want to put on notice that if something happens to Douglas Devananda it would be only from the action of the LTTE.

In the past, though the LTTE, has denied responsibility, it has left its paw marks through (1) Tiger technology, (2) modus operandi and (3) motives. The Tiger technology is revealed in suicide bombers, (they perfected the art of jackets worn round the body) , long-range snipers, or pistol gangs riding in motor cycles. Their modus operandi is to study, video and map out strategies of the location and go on practice runs before executing with deadly accuracy.

All the Tamil and non-Tamil leaders killed - i.e. from Rajiv Gandhi to Lakshman Kadirgamar -- had posed a serious threat to the LTTE at one time or another. All three factors have combined in the previous ten attacks on Douglas Devananda.

Devananda, who heads the Eelam People's Democratic Party, V. Anandasangaree, head of the Tamil United Liberation Front and Col Karuna, are the three remaining Tamil leaders who are on the hit list of the Tamil Tigers. Of these Anandasangaree is abroad and Col. Karuna is in hiding. The easiest target is Douglas Devananda, senior minister the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government led by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Bandaranaike.

Douglas Devananda, an elected Member of Parliament in the Jaffna electoral district, won a seat in the parliament of Sri Lanka at the last parliamentary general elections held on 02 April 2004, despite rampant election fraud, malpractices, threats and intimidation of LTTE, and disproved the LTTE claim that they are the "sole representatives of the Tamils".

Douglas Devananda is the only moderate Tamil political leader, who has been protesting against the LTTE atrocities in Sri Lanka, for the past 15 years continuously. Douglas and his men, based in Sri Lanka, are determined to expose the atrocities of the LTTE to the International Community.

Douglas Devananda MP is today the only surviving Senior Tamil Minister of Agricultural Marketing Development, Co-operative Development, Hindu Affairs and Assisting Education and Vocational Training in the Cabinet of Chandrika Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka.

Devananda was born in Jaffna on 10th November 1957. At the age of 13 he joined the Manavar Peravai (Students Federation) and in 1975 he joined the EROS - Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students. It was then that he assumed the pseudonym of Douglas.

In his youth he was with various Tamil rebel groups. But realizing that the destiny of the Tamil people is by winning rights through non-violent democratic means he turned a new leaf by establishing the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).

Having entered the democratic mainstream, Douglas worked hard to build his party in the North-East Province of Sri Lanka. His efforts paid dividends when nine members of the EPDP, including himself were elected to Parliament from the Jaffna District, in August 1994. Douglas was reelected to Parliament in October 2000, and again in December 2001.

Douglas Devananda is a self-confident idealist, who is a committed fighter against fascism. He is unassuming, approachable and a believer in humanism. He is determined to serve his people, despite the fact that he has been wounded, scarred and blinded in one eye, and compelled to live a life in the shadow of death. He deserves to lead a normal life without threats to his life. This appeal is to give him that right. Your vote can, hopefully, ensure that right to live in a democratic society without being killed just because he disagrees with those who claim to be "the sole representative" of any community - an unrealistic political proposition except in a fascist regime.

Please join in my efforts to warn parents of the Hot Dog Choking Danger and help prevent the death of a small child.

CHOKING is the 4th leading cause of accidental DEATH in children under the age of five. Studies indicate that HOT DOGS are the #1 food KILLER. At least one child dies from choking on food every 5 days in the USA and more than 10,000 children are taken to hospital emergency rooms each year for food-choking injuries.

A choking warning label must be placed on hot dog packages to alert parents of this danger. A small child has baby teeth and an ill-equipped esophagus which can not adequately chew and swallow this meat as normally served to them - - in a bun. Also, parents tend to slice the hot dogs in quarters which is also deadly. A hot dog when served to a young child must: have the skin removed, cut lengthwise into quarters (4 long strips) and then again cut into small pieces.

The Bill #HR 2773 - Food Choking Prevention Act of 2003 has been introduced to Congress by House Representatives Michael Honda (D-CA) and Michael Ferguson (R-NJ). It is currently in purgatory and has been referred to a subcommittee. The chairman of that committee is Congressman Michael Bilirakis (R-FL). One of the benefits of Bill #HR 2773 will be the reflection of warning labels on statistically dangerous foods to our children such as hot dogs. Please write to your State elected officials (locate address through www.firstgov.gov) and request that he/she co-sponsor and stand in support of this bill. For additional information, you can refer to http://cspinet.org/new/200307171.html,
http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/choking_recommendations.pdf.

Parents need to be made aware of this hot dog choking danger and the manufacturers should take the first step and place warning labels on their food. Another step would be to get this message out to as many parents as possible. No one should have to endure the pain and suffering of losing a young child to such a senseless preventable event.

Over 70,000 petition signatures were submitted to the 2006 session of the Alabama legislature asking them to support a blill that would allow the people of Alabam to vote for or against a convention to rewrite the State Constitution. The Bill was approved by the appropriate Senate committee, but then was allowed to die.

We will continue to gather signatures and hopefully submit several hundred thousand to the next session

For more details, visit the above Reform website.

We will not reach our full potential until we get a 21st century constitution- not a document designed for the mule and wagon era.

Signer must be a U.S. Citizen, a resident of Alabama, 18 years or older, and have not signed a paper form of this petition. If under 18 years old go to Student Petition at www.gopetition.com/online/6680.html

The purpose of this petition is to have appointed Sheriff Jim Wilson immediately removed from office and allow the citizens choice of Sheriff to take immediate command of the Sheriff's Department. The department is in turmoil. Frivolous spending, very low morale, intimidation of employees, irresponsible changes and the 2005 budget are the main concerns.

Jim Wilson must be removed immediately to allow the newly elected Sheriff the opportunity to create the budget he will administer, not one created by Jim Wilson who does not have the communities best interest at heart. Jim Wilson states he is a public servant. If he is a true public servant, he will serve his public's desires of him not being in office and the new Sheriff installed. Jim Wilson can not offer any valid justification for remaining in office until January. It is strictly personal for Jim and not for the good of Williamson County. Jim must be removed immediately in order to prevent his further destruction of the Sheriff's Department, leaving a complete mess for the elected Sheriff to clean up. Please join us in sending a strong message to our County Judge, Commissioners and Jim Wilson.

This is the online version of a paper petition circulating in N.E. Pa.

The form of government we have enjoyed is based on three houses of government co-equal in power. It is the duty of each branch to hold the others accountable. We currently have a situation in which the Federal judicial system is unaccountable, as witnessed by the "pledge of allegiance ruling, and the removal of Alabama's monument. This is clearly unacceptable to the majority of Americans. We are asking our elected representatives in congress to propose legislation to limit the scope of rule or at least make it subject to review by elected officials in order to restore balance to the system.

The British National Party and the National Front have been gaining support recently. We must ally against these thugs in suits. They do not represent the working class. Their policy is similar to that of Hitler, who also claimed to represent the working class, yet stopped the trade unions and took away the workers voice. We must now do something about the Nazis, apathy is the real danger.